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Esholt, West Yorkshire
In May 2010 my dream of visiting Esholt came true. One Sunday morning the family and me drove 210 miles to Esholt from Norfolk. When we parked by the viaduct and I saw the shop and Woolpack for the first time for real I was besotted. And this page is all about the village itself and its use before and during being used for village scenes for Emmie. Village Info Esholt is a small village in West Yorkshire inbetween Shipley and Guiseley and just north of the city of Bradford. The village is situated in the Metropolitan District of Bradford. The name "Esholt" indicated the village was settled in a heavily wooded area of ash trees. In the 1800s the village expanded because a waterworks was built and they needed cottages for the workers. In 1975 Esholt was chosen as the village to film the village scenes of the ITV soap opera Emmerdale Farm. Before that, filming previously took place in the Littondale village of Arncliffe, North Yorkshire but a location closer to the Yorkshire TV studios in Leeds was chosen. In the show this was explained as being a different part of Beckindale village, the fictional village in the show, (known as Emmerdale since 1994). We first saw Esholt in village scenes of Emmerdale Farm on 20 January 1976 when Mel Openshaw drove past the building that was soon chosen as the new Woolpack. In 1995 when Emmerdale was to be shown 3 times a week, the location filming schedule in Esholt got heavier. Tourists flocked on the village, and the residents kept having to move their cars, and stay indoors during shots, and tourists were told not to get into shot or take photographs. In 1997 a replica of Esholt was built on the Harewood Estate near Leeds. In December 1997 the Emmerdale production team waved goodbye to Esholt and in January 1998 after the Christmas and New Year break, filming the village scenes began on the picturesque new life size village. The Harewood village is not an exact replica of Esholt and several viewers wrote in to Yorkshire TV noticing the change. Although the geographical relationship between the pub, the post office, Pear Tree Cottage, Victoria, Cottage, Keepers Cottage and Mill Brook Cottage is virtually identical to Esholt. They made the stonework more like a Dales Village which is rubble style limestone whereas Esholt's is coursed sandstone. Some parts of the Harewood village have a similarity to Arncliffe such as the bridge, cemetery and river even if they probably did not base it on Arncliffe, and not forgetting some of the buildings in Harewood which are copied from Esholt are menat to be the same buildings in the fictional show to what they were in the Arncliffe days, ie smithy, school, village hall and bridge. Esholt still attracts many tourists to this day, 13 years since Emmerdale stopped filming there. Now here are a few photos of the village, from my own personal collection of photos I took in Esholt in May 2010. The photo, right is of Esholt post office and houses nearby on the main road which runs through the village. The post office was used as the village post office in Emmerdale. The Woolpack, Esholt. Used as the exterior of the Woolpack in Emmerdale. Esholt Woolpack was once the Commercial Inn but due to tourists visiting the name was changed to the Woolpack to match the fictional pub in the Emmerdale story. The slip road to and from the car park behind the Woolpack in Esholt. The back of the Woolpack. In December 1993 when a plane crashed on the village a piece of wreckage hit the wine bar extension of the Woolpack trapping Chris Tate in the rubble. The scenes where he was found was filmed here. A purpose built temporary extension to the Woolpack was built for the scenes. Esholt tea rooms and the church in the background. This building was used as the exterior of the Emmerdale Tea Rooms. And Esholt Church which can be seen behind, which was used for the scenes of baptisms, weddings and funerals in Emmerdale. Category:Real life locations used in Emmerdale.